This invention relates to sickles, and particularly to an improved construction for the bar that mounts the sickle cutter sections.
Sickles are widely used in mechanical apparatus for cutting and harvesting. Sickles typically contain an elongated bar to which are attached a plurality of triangular tooth sickle cutter sections arranged side by side along the length of the bar. The bar with the attached sickle sections is reciprocated relative to a guard structure and the material to be cut is caught between the reciprocating cutter sections and the guards.
The sickles, and therefore the sickle bars, can be very lengthy. A 30 foot sickle bar is not uncommon.
The sickle sections will occasionally break or become excessively worn. The sections are typically attached to the bar by some removable fasteners such as bolts, so that it is relatively simple to replace one or more sickle sections. However, when a bar breaks, or an entire length of assembled bar and sickle sections must be replaced, it is necessary to transport a very long flat bar. The cost of shipping such a part is very expensive in terms of its intrinsic value.
The present invention provides a sickle bar construction that allows a sickle to be made up of a number of shorter bar sections, without reducing the strength or endurance of the resulting sickle.